It didn't take long for the coach's challenge to play a major role in these Stanley Cup playoffs. Last night was truly the worst possible scenario. The Blues lose the potential game winner on an offsides call that is almost impossible to see...even in frame by frame stop motion. And then, the Hawks win the game on another controversial goal where Elliot is was definitely prevented from making a save as he was being pushed back into his own net by a player who was a foot inside the crease....

Here's the thing that bothers me. We are losing the spirit if "getting the call right" by doing it this way. I know this is a work in progress and I am not one to buck technology, but we need to introduce another concept into this...and I am not sure how, but the concept has to be something akin to "Did the missed call have anything to do with the goal?"

The offsides last night was ridiculously close and honestly was too close even frame by frame to determine. We are talking milliseconds here the puck was a hard pass on the blue line the second the back skate came up. Is it technically offsides? Yes.....but what is offsides really? the concept of offsides is at its core meant to keep players from, for lack of a better term, cherry picking, right? Was this player cheating in that way? Of course not. The definition of offsides being "when the skate leaves ice" may need to be re-evaluated now that we are going frame by frame....That definition was set up for linesmen to use as a standard, but now that we are able to go frame by frame why isn't the definition simply, "Is the player completely over the blue line?" Isn't that more in the spirit of offsides? Isn't that how we explain offsides as a rule? "You can't cross the blue line until the puck does."

No matter how you slice it, the offsides had no bearing on the goal that was scored...the puck went behind the net and was passed to another player who scored...

This isn't the case of the Pastrnak goal scored by the Bruins in their final game where the puck was banked and he was on a breakaway and scored...a play that was allowed even though it was clearly two feet offsides...

Contrast this with the Blackhawks goal where Shaw is IN THE CREASE and pushes Elliot back as he pushes the puck over the line. In this case the infraction DIRECTLY resulted in the goal and was the reason the goal was scored...Yes, that is my interpretation and you may disagree that he impeded with the goalie....but you can't disagree that the issue in question was far more relevant to whether or not the goal was scored than the millisecond the skate left the ice on the pass...

Either was we are missing some key parts to this and I think if we are going to use these rules in frame by frame detail we need to get back to why these rules exist in the first place....we need to redefine offsides or have some judgement that states, "His skate did in fact leave the ice as the puck was crossing but the player was not trying to cheat and made a reasonable attempt to stay onside..."

Something needs to change.

What do you think?

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